Category Archives: people

Joyce Wethered, Simply the Greatest

If you want to talk about the greatest golfers of all time, proponents of Jones, Snead, Hogan, Nicklaus, and Woods would have lively debate.

Female golfers? Wright, Whitworth, and Sorenstam all have their claim.

But then there is Joyce Wethered. If you don’t know who she was, read this. If you do know who she was, still read it.

I once had a book of essays by Bernard Darwin, the best golf writer ever. He had a few on Wethered that exhausted his supply of superlatives. She was that good.

Ben Hogan Swing Sequence

Below is the only known detailed Ben Hogan swing sequence series made with a stop-action camera. It was reproduced from the book, The Search For the Perfect Golf Swing.

The sequence has sixteen frames, but only four for the backswing. In an in-time sixteen-frame sequence, the backswing would take up about twelve of the frames.

1.

Hogan did not take the club back in a leisurely way. Notice that the shaft is already bending.

2.

3.

Halfway back, his wrist hinge is almost fully set.

4.

Notice his ramrod straight left arm. Only Hogan gets away with this.

5.

It looks like Hogan has a tremendous amount of lag, but it is because his flat swing tilts the plane of his arms and clubshaft far away from a vertical plane of the film. Figure 8 shows his lag better.

6.

7.

8.

This is really late to be retaining this much lag. Don’t you try this.

9.

10.

11.

You know what I always say about the hands leading the clubhead at impact? Here it is.

12.

13.

Hogan did not cross his hands over after impact. This, and figure 14, show his right hand underneath the handle for a long time. This is a huge anti-hook move, but it’s very hard to do.

14.

15.

16.

Mickey Wright 1935-2020

Mickey Wright, IMO the greatest female golfer of all time, died today of heart attack in Florida. She dominated women’s golf in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Coming out of San Diego, she was one of the game’s greatest champions, winning 82 tournaments including 13 majors in a career cut short by injuries.

Ben Hogan said she had the finest swing he ever saw. See it below.

She wrote an instruction book called Play Golf the Wright Way, a book I refer to often.

See notices:
GolfWorld

New York Times

Golf Channel

GolfWRX

Golf Digest

GolfWorld tribute

Dan Jenkins, 1928-2019

Renowned golf writer and member of the World Golf Hall of Fame (2012) Dan Jenkins passed away on March 7 at the age of 89.

Read his obituary in the New York Times and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

And this tribute from Golf World.

Read also his hilarious “interview” with Tiger Woods which the then imperial personality did not find to be amusing. Be sure to listen to his monologue below the end of the article.

Jenkins’s novel, Semi-Tough, about pro football, was made into a movie starring Burt Reynolds, Kris Kristofferson, and Jill Clayburgh.

Another of his novels, Dead Solid Perfect, about professional golf, was filmed as well, starring Randy Quaid and Kathryn Harrold.

And finally, read his account of the stroke-play qualifying for the Greatest of All Time Invitational, played starting March 20 at the Augusta National Golf Club. It’s in the April 2109 Golf Digest, with Jordan Spieth on the cover. The article is likely Jenkins’s final piece of golf writing. It will leave you in stitches. What a gift to leave to us.

Carol Mann (1941-2018)

Carol Mann, winner of 38 LPGA tournaments, and star of the Tour in the 1960s and 70s, died on May 20 at age 77.   Read her obituary in the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune.

In her early days as a professional, Mann toured the country with Patty Berg, giving on-course clinics.   I attended one that was held on the 10th fairway of the Eastmoreland Golf Course in Portland, Oregon, in roughly 1961.   It is a fond golf memory.